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Monday, 16 May 2011

Book Lovers' Quiz - May 2011

Last week I teamed up with fellow blogger and all round bibliophilic good egg Norfolk Bookworm to host our second book quiz at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library.

For those who couldn't be there on Thursday, those who just like testing their quizzing acumen, and those wanting to test the water before booking, here are the questions. (Answers are in white below the question: highlight the - apparently - blank space to see them)

Enjoy! And Good Luck!

Round 1: Food and Drink

1) When Oliver Twist utters the words, “Please, sir, I want some more.” What food does he want more of?

A: Gruel

2) In Fannie Flagg’s novel, what food is the Whistlestop Café known for?

A: Fried Green Tomatoes

3) Complete the title of the Alexander McCall Smith novel: The Unbearable Lightness of _____

8) In which story does a man wake up one day to find he has turned into a giant bug?

A: Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

9) “The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.”
This is the first line of which novel?

A: Jaws

10) Who wrote the novels that started with All Creatures Great and Small?

A: James Herriot

Round 3: Politics, elections, and literary referenda

1 - Which of Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago’s novels takes place in an unnamed democracy where the voters turn up to the polls in large numbers, but the election count reveals that the vast majority of the ballots are blank?A: Seeing

2 – Which US novel speculates about how history would have altered had Charles Lindbergh run against Roosevelt for the US presidency in 1940 and won?A: The Plot Against Americaby Philip Roth

4 - In Alan Hollinghurst's Booker-winning The Line of Beauty, Gerald Fedden enters Parliament and has two major political ambitions. They are:

A: To have a latex likeness on Spitting Image and to have Margaret Thatcher home for supper

5 – "Ancient Institutions and Modern Improvements" is the campaigning slogan cooked up by spin doctors Tadpole and Taper for the election in which novel by a famous politician?A: Coningsby by Benjamin Disreli

6 - Which New Labourite enjoyed a previous career writing erotica?

A: Alastair Campbell

7 - Which thinker claimed that the best rulers are those who do not want to rule?A: Plato

8 – In which 2002 film, based on a short story by Philip K Dick, is a referendum held on 22 April 2054 on whether people should be arrested and judged for a murder they will commit in the future.A: Minority Report

9 – The character of Napoleon and Snowball represent which two Soviet leaders?A: Stalin and Trotsky

10 – Which celebrated play deals with the decision by West German chancellor Willy Brandt to expose the Communist spy Günter Guillaume who worked as his secretary and had heard some of the state's most important secrets?A: Democracy by Michael Frayn

Round 4: Oh I do Like to be Beside the Seaside

1) In which 1903 novel do Carruthers and Davies discover a German plan to attack Britain while they are on a yachting holiday?

A: The Riddle of the Sands

2) What was the name of captain Nemo’s submarine?

A: Nautilus

3) The late Eva Ibbotson wrote Journey to the River Sea, but which river is known as the River Sea?

A: The Amazon

4) In the Old Man and the Sea what is Santiago failing to do?

A: Catch fish

5) The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is a prequel to which 1847 novel?

A: Jane Eyre

6) Which naval hero created by CS Forest starts life as a seasick midshipman but ends up admiral of the fleet?

A: Horatio Hornblower

7) Iris Murdoch won the Booker Prize in 1979 for which novel?

A: The Sea, The Sea

8) Neville Shute’s 1963 novel about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust caused by World War 3 is called what?

A: On The Beach

9) Which poet and novelist wrote the poem Sea-Fever?

A: John Masefield

10) What is Captain Hook’s ship called?

A: The Jolly Roger

Table Round 1

Twitterature

Name the author and title of the following works, whose plots have been summarised in 140 characters

1) Vladimir and Estragon stand next to tree waiting for their friend. Their status is not updated.

A: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

2) Upper-class woman gets it on with gamekeeper.

A: Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence

3) Man walks around Dublin. Not much happens.

A: Ulysses by James Joyce

4) In order to get out of here I have to prove I am insane. But wanting out of here proves I’m sane. What to do?